Mid-Game Review.

He Who Tells Stories and I have been playing on Wednesday nights for a couple months. Games have been getting longer and longer, so we're trying something new. Rather than let the game drag on past the point when most of my brain cells have gone to bed, we paused, took a picture, and plan to finish this Wednesday. Here's the current state of things:

I'm black, he's white. Even match.

I remember doing a lot of reactive damage-control, so at this point, before reviewing it, I feel pretty dejected. Maybe fresh eyes will help. My memory is hazy, so these notes are more about what I see now than what was actually going through my head at the time.

White 2 - Seems like a conservative opening to me.

Black 5 - Making an enclosure.

Black 9 - I wonder if I could have gotten away with something more aggressive there. 8 was a pretty big jump.

White 10 - White's claiming the fuck out of the top left corner. And why not? I'm not putting pressure on. 

Black 11 - Okay, that's enough of that. Time to start shit before white digs in. White is playing all low, aside from the 4-4. Then again, so is black. We both want edges, and we're both willing to play low to make it easier. Are neither of us confident enough to play high?

Black 13 - A choice between up or down. The corner is worth more and his friend is further away.

White 14 - White has to respond. Defending the corner and making it harder for 13 to get to the edge.

Black 15 - Not sure what the hell that's about. Trying to split 2 apart from 8? I bet I wasn't clear on my intent, then, either. Am I trying to win the corner? Am I trying to corral white into the corner and build a wall for myself? Who knows.

White 16 - Support for 8, trying to make a base. Both white's here and black's at move 11 and 13 are 1-space extensions on the third line rather than the standard 2-space extension, which I just realized in grabbing the link for "base." Huh.

Ugh. This whole exchange is really bad for black. I don't know now what I was trying to do then, and I bet I didn't really know then either. 

Black 17 - Possibly trying to connect under and make it harder for 16 to get to the edge? Too many stones too loosely connected, with no clear intent. Danger! Danger!

White 18 - And the cutting. 

Black 19 - And the extending. Attempting to protect the weaker stone.

White 20 - And the blocking.

Black 23 - I have to take something out to save the 3 black stones. "White, who's it gonna to be?"

White 24 - He chooses well.

White 26 - Securing the corner.

Black 27 - I think I thought it was important to take out that white stone so I could make an eye with those three.

Black 29 - Feeling panic-y about the groups on the right. Should have been more worried about the two stones on the left.

Black 31 - Well, I can't save it. Maybe I can extend help to the straggler and corral white into the corner at the same time. Maybe?

White 32 - So, white gets the corner and black gets potential for an eye and influence toward the center.

Black 33 - Killing 22, like I wanted to. Probably should have kept sente instead.

I'm going to stop reconstructing this in my pretty Photoshop file now because it's too time-consuming and not clear enough. I'll upgrade to an app that'll let me save and export games after I'm done studying what happened in this one.

Other thoughts on this game:

If we scored it right now, I'd be winning, but I still have a ton of weak points and groups that aren't connected. He might also be able plunk down an invasion out in the center there and live, eating up a good amount of territory. Which weaknesses are the most critical?

White sprawl happened along the right edge because of a mistake where I tried to prevent eyes on the inside rather than corralling from the outside. 

The 1-space extensions along the fourth line at the top were pretty useless. Not sure what I was trying to do there. The first one was peep-ing myself, and the second one was even weaker than that.

Lost some groups in the upper left quadrant because I just plain didn't see the danger until it was too late. Pay more attention?

I need to play more intentionally. Know exactly what I'm trying to do, even if I'm not skilled enough to pull it off every time. It might help to list off all the things the last stone is doing, so I can answer with all the things I want my next stone to do. 

I still don't know how I feel about this game. Maybe that's okay. At least now I know what I'm going to do next. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion.